Detective
The hallmarks of a planet’s Arbites presence are all too obvious---the grim black block of a fortified Courthouse rearing up among hab buildings, a column of stark black Rhino and Repressor tanks rumbling down a thoroughfare, or the expressionless, mirror-visored gaze of an Arbitrator over the top of their suppression shield. A Precinct relying only on their paramilitary might would soon fail, however, able only to react to the most open and obvious signs of criminality. As well as warriors for the law, the Arbites must be hunters of the lawless. Refusing to rely too heavily upon the Inquisition or the planetary Enforcers, Lord Marshal Goreman expects each precinct within the sector to train and maintain agents specialized in investigation. Pulling heavily upon old favors owed and new promises made, Lord Marshal Goreman, worked tirelessly to build a cadre of Detective-Arbitrators, trained in a variety of pursuits and esoteric knowledge. Their red collars mark them amongst their peers, although the wary glances of their fellow Arbitrators and shrewd minds are almost as clear a marker of their skills. The Detectives are the Arbites’ eyes and ears out among the populace, gathering up the whispers and clues that would scurry into hiding at the first sight of an Arbitrator uniform, coldly bearing witness for the day when the hammer of judgment falls. Lord Marshal Goreman is content to let the existence of his spies be an open secret in most Imperial societies, since the nagging fear that someone is listening becomes another tool to help keep the citizenry in line. The specifics of Detective operations, however, are scrupulously protected from view, even that of most other Arbites. A Detective command will attempt to insinuate information gatherers into every corner of its jurisdiction, through infiltration, surveillance, and the use of outside spies. These are not simply different techniques but time-honored specializations with their own rank structures and formalized operational dogmas. The Detective-Surveillor specializes in direct observation and recording of lawbreakers and suspected lawbreakers (two categories which between them cover practically every person in the Calixis Sector). Surveillors are the most heavily technical of Goreman’s Detectives, adept with the use of concealed pict arrays, vox-thieves, pheromone and chem-trackers, and subtle devices with cunning machine-spirits to intercept transmechanical communications. Surveillors’ work can be more direct, sending them out among the crowds to eavesdrop on their targets or tail suspects. Sometimes they must even slip unnoticed into homes, vehicles, or places of work or worship to pick up conversations, plant devices, or to steal biological traces to add to a suspect’s dossier. It can come as a great and terminal surprise to a lawbreaker who thought their tracks were covered when they are hunted down by a cyber-mastiff working with a fragment of hair and a scrap of undergarment that a Detective-Surveillor stole from their hab weeks, months, or years before. Detective-Espionists preside over webs of spies, informants, and agents-provocateurs, some of whom may be fellow Detectives but most of whom will be outsiders who may not even know it is the Arbites to whom they are passing their reports. Informants are recruited through trickery, through their sense of Imperial duty, or most frequently, through terror. When the case against a suspect becomes substantial enough for action, Detectives will make an assessment of that person’s worth as an informant, and what leverage they have to force them to become one. Calixian procedure has been authorized (and duplicated) by Inquisitorial powers and includes making a showy example of one of a group of arrestees in order to spur co-operation from the others, and Espionists are not above manipulating a potential recruit into a compromised position from which the only way out is onto the informant register. In target areas or organizations where the Judges’ suspicions are strong, he may have whole webs of informants, none of whom know of each other, all informing on one another. The Calixian Precincts are not concerned with the duplication of information; by checking and comparing reports against one another they can monitor their informants for reliability and signs of treachery. Detectives have no problems with employing outright agents-provocateur to stir up trouble. Entrapping a suspect has shown remarkable success on the outlying worlds of the Calixis Sector---if a citizen engages in disloyalty, crime, or sedition, then they have exposed themselves as weak, flawed, and unworthy of the privilege of even the limited freedom that Imperial daily life allows. Notably, more than twenty noblemen were arrested and sentenced to death after Judge Harmahk convinced them to turn against the Barsapine Planetary Governor in the wake of massive damage to one of the world’s most beloved Cathedrals. Whether their crime came of their own behavior or through the efforts of an Arbites provocateur is irrelevant and, in fact, an accused who claims otherwise is simply adding a self-confessed count of culpable moral weakness to their roll of charges. The Adeptus Arbites make use of assistance or information from other Imperial organizations as well. Investigators utilize Adepts (both within the Precinct Fortress and those serving the Administratum) to pore over mountains of data. A detective may spend months within the Precinct scouring statistics and legal actions looking for patterns or odd behavior. Astropathic or similar assets are rare and carefully-controlled. When psychic abilities are required, agents look to the Scholastia Psykana who have shown an aptitude for psychometry or cognito-mnemonic drilling to lend aid. The Detectives’s work crosses over into many other specialties---with Chasteners as they handle and break captives and with Verispex as they compile their dossiers of evidence. It is common for Arbites to cross-train and straddle these specialties, ranking in one and acting in another. Arbites who transfer into the Detective specialty will often use their old rank and position as a cover so that they can blend in with Arbites operations and not give away their presence. Detectives have no distinct uniform of their own; when they wish to, they signify themselves with a red collar or lanyard worn over whatever uniform they wore before they began Detective work.